Vince Vaughn, the king of kooky comedies is set to star in a new film called “The Dilemma.” The name is certainly apt, for there is a storm of criticism surrounding the film from the gay and lesbian community, and distributor Universal is in two minds whether to go ahead with the release.
The debacle arose after the preview for the film used the word ‘gay’ as a derogatory word. CNN’s Anderson Cooper first questioned the film about the line last week on his own show, and also when he visited “Ellen.” He said he was "shocked that not only they put (the offending line) in the movie but that they put that in the preview. They thought that it was OK to put that in a preview for the movie to get people to go and see it."
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation have also come out in opposition to the film using the word ‘gay’in a pejorative manner. Universal have cut the scene from a new trailer released last week, but the original is sill playing in theatres. The film is set to be released in January 2011, but instead of the pre-release advertising whetting viewers’ appetites for a light-hearted “buddy-buddy” comedy, the picture has unwittingly been drawn into a nation-wide discussion of the use of anti-gay language and the consequences it can have.
The timing of the preview release is especially bad taste given the recent gay-slur related suicide of a Rutgers student.
